Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc., formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide’s parent company.

Martin Goodman founded the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939.[7][8] Martin Goodman, apulp magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company’s offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher.[8]

Timely’s first publication, Marvel Comics #1 (cover dated Oct. 1939), included the first appearance of Carl Burgos‘ androidsuperhero theHuman Torch, and the first appearances of Bill Everett‘s anti-heroNamor the Sub-Mariner,[9] among other features.[7] The issue was a great success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined, nearly 900,000 copies.[10] While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc.,[7] Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. The company’s first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist and emerging industry notable Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes,[11]Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million.[10] Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc., beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941.[12][13]

Goodman hired his wife’s cousin,[16] Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939.[17] When editor Simon left the company in late 1941,[18] Goodman made Lieber—by then writing pseudonymously as “Stan Lee“—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles.

Goodman’s business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff.[13] One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics’ covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946–47), were labeled “A Marvel Magazine” many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.[19]

Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned,[21] on comics cover-dated November 1951 even though another company, Kable News, continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues.[22] This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications.[23]

During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, spearheaded by German-American psychiatrist Fredrick Wortham. Wortham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents. In September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences. The next month, the code was published, forcing comic book companies to send their comics to them in order to gain their seal of approval. The stamp on the cover showed audiences that the comics were considered wholesome, entertaining, and educational.[26][27]

In 1961, writer-editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to more older readers than the predominantly child audiences of the medium. Modern Marvel’s first superhero team, the titular stars of The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961),[29] broke convention with other comic book archetypes of the time by squabbling, holding grudges both deep and petty, and eschewing anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. Subsequently, Marvel comics developed a reputation for focusing on characterization and adult issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality which the new generation of older readers appreciated.[30] This applied toThe Amazing Spider-Man title in particular, which turned out to be Marvel’s most successful book. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something readers could identify with.

Lee and freelance artist and eventual co-plotter Jack Kirby‘s Fantastic Four originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age.[31] Eschewing such comic-book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a “superheroes in the real world” approach, the series represented a change that proved to be a great success.[32]

Marvel often presented flawed superheroes, freaks, and misfits—unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters such as the Hulk and the Thing. This naturalistic approach even extended into topical politics.

Comics historian Mike Benton also noted:

In the world of [rival DC Comics‘] Superman comic books, communism did not exist. Superman rarely crossed national borders or involved himself in political disputes.[33] From 1962 to 1965, there were more communists [in Marvel Comics] than on the subscription list of Pravda. Communist agents attack Ant-Man in his laboratory, red henchmen jump the Fantastic Four on the moon, and Viet Cong guerrillas take potshots at Iron Man.[34]

All of these elements struck a chord with the older readers, such as college-aged adults, and they successfully gained in a way not seen before. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in Esquire magazine’s list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan.[35] In 2009 writer Geoff Boucher reflected that, “Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby’s artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times—or was it Lee’s bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time?”[36]

In 1968, while selling 50 million comic books a year, company founder Goodman revised the constraining distribution arrangement with Independent News he had reached under duress during the Atlas years, allowing him now to release as many titles as demand warranted.[21] Late that year he sold Marvel Comics and his other publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation, which continued to group them as the subsidiary Magazine Management Company, with Goodman remaining as publisher.[38] In 1969, Goodman finally ended his distribution deal with Independent by signing with Curtis Circulation Company.[21]

In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry’s self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman’s approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971), without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year.[39]

Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher,[40] Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel’s president[40] for a brief time.[41] During his time as president, he appointed as editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who added “Stan Lee Presents” to the opening page of each comic book.[40]

A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code achieved moderate to strong success with titles themed to horror (The Tomb of Dracula), martial arts,(Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu), sword-and-sorcery (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja), satire (Howard the Duck) and science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey, “Killraven” in Amazing Adventures, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and, late in the decade, the long-running Star Wars series). Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under itsCurtis Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux.[42] Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel’s November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount.[43]

Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel’s old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half.[44] In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact the first specialty comic book stores resold them at a later date.[citation needed] But by the end of the decade, Marvel’s fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution—selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands.

Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon ’75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon ’76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel’s signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics.[45] In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in different countries, including the UK, created a superhero specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in the UK, and later appeared in American comics.[46]

In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel’s editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter’s nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne‘s run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller‘s run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes.[48] Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market,[49] institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars; and in 1986 launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period.

Marvel earned a great deal of money and recognition during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099, etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker.[51][52] In 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International. These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. The 1990s saw the rise of variant covers, cover enhancements, swimsuit issues, and company-wide crossovers that affected the overall continuity of the fictional Marvel Universe

In 1996, Marvel had some of its titles participate in “Heroes Reborn“, a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and outsource them to the studios of two of the former Marvel artists turned Image Comics founders, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The relaunched titles, which saw the characters transported to a parallel universe with a history distinct from the mainstream Marvel Universe, were a solid success amidst a generally struggling industry,[54] but Marvel discontinued the experiment after a one-year run and returned the characters to the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Daredevil.

Marvel’s logo, circa 1990s

In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor.[55] As the industry’s other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.[56][57] In early 1997, when Marvel’s Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel[58]—giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews.[59]

In 1991 Ronald Perelman, whose company, Andrews Group, had purchased Marvel Comic’s Parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG) in 1989, took the company public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock. Then, by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996 Marvel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[60]

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. The first title from this era to not have the code was X-Force #119 (October 2001). Marvel also created new imprints, such asMAX (an explicit-content line) and Marvel Adventures (developed for child audiences). In addition, the company created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation.

Some of its characters have been turned into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black movie series, starting in 1997, Blade movie series, starting in 1998, X-Men movie series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series Spider-Man, beginning in 2002.[62]

In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light, titled “She’s a Marvel”, featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper (played byBeth Ehlers) as a superheroine named the Guiding Light.[63] The character’s story continued in an eight-page backup feature, “A New Light”, that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8.[64] Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site.[65]

In late 2007 the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee.[66]

In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work.[67] The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.[68][69]

In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced for publication in September.[82] With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint “Disney Kingdoms” imprint “Seekers of the Weird”, a five-issue miniseries.[71] On January 3, 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm Limited, LLC announced that as of 2015, Star Warscomics would once again be published by Marvel.[83]

Marvel’s chief editor originally held the title of “editor”. This head editor’s title later became “editor-in-chief”. Joe Simon was the company’s first true chief-editor, with publisherMartin Goodman, who had served as titular editor only and outsourced editorial operations.

In 1994 Marvel briefly abolished the position of editor-in-chief, replacing Tom DeFalco with five group editors-in-chief. As Carl Potts described the 1990s editorial arrangement:

In the early ’90s, Marvel had so many titles that there were three Executive Editors, each overseeing approximately 1/3 of the line. Bob Budiansky was the third Executive Editor [following the previously appointed Mark Gruenwald and Potts]. We all answered to Editor-in-Chief Tom DeFalco and Publisher Mike Hobson. All three Executive Editors decided not to add our names to the already crowded credits on the Marvel titles. Therefore it wasn’t easy for readers to tell which titles were produced by which Executive Editor … In late ’94, Marvel reorganized into a number of different publishing divisions, each with its own Editor-in-Chief.[88]

Marvel reinstated the overall editor-in-chief position in 1995 with Bob Harras.

Originally called associate editor when Marvel’s chief editor just carried the title of editor, the title of the next highest editorial position became executive editor under the chief editor title of editor-in-chief. The title of associate editor later was revived under the editor-in-chief as an editorial position in charge of few titles under the direction of an editor and without an assistant editor.

Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to many other media. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and its sister company, Marvel Studios, while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel material.

The RPG industry brought the development of the Collectible card game (CCG) in the early 1990s which there were soon Marvel characters were featured in CCG of their own starting in 1995 with Fleer‘s OverPower (1995–1999). Later collectible card game were:

Video games based on Marvel characters go back to 1984 and the Atari game, Spider-Man. Since then several dozen video games have been released and all have been produced by outside licensees. In 2014, Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes was released that brought Marvel characters to the existing Disney sandbox video game. and Ps2 games to voice over by and played by Jason Orange for save the children fund

As of the start of September 2015, films based on Marvel’s properties represent the highest-grossing U.S. franchise, having grossed over $7.7 billion [100] as part of a worldwide gross of over $18 billion.

Marvel first licensed two prose novels to Bantam Books, who printed The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker by Otto Binder (1967) and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal byTed White (1968). Various publishers took up the licenses from 1978 to 2002. Also, with the various licensed films being released beginning in 1997, various publishers put out movie novelizations.[101] In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novelMary Jane, starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprintMarvel Press.[102] However, Marvel moved back to licensing with Pocket Books from 2005 to 2008.[101] With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched Marvel Press in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.[103]

Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include multiple series for popular characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men. Additionally, a handful of television movies, usually also pilots, based on Marvel Comics characters have been made.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts plans on creating original Marvel attractions at their theme parks,[106][107] with Hong Kong Disneyland becoming the first Disney theme park to feature a Marvel attraction.[108][109] Due to the licensing agreement with Universal Studios, signed prior to Disney’s purchase of Marvel, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney are barred from having Marvel characters in their parks.[110] However, this only includes characters Universal is currently using, other characters in their “families” (X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, etc.), and the villains associated with said characters.[104] This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet and greets, merchandise, attractions and more with other Marvel characters not associated with the characters at Islands of Adventures, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy[111][112] as well as Baymaxand Hiro from Big Hero 6.[113]

Jump up^Apocryphal legend has it that in 1961, either Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of DC Comics (then known as National Periodical Publications) bragged about DC’s success with the Justice League (which had debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28 [February 1960] before going on to its own title) to publisherMartin Goodman (whose holdings included the nascent Marvel Comics) during a game of golf.However, film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan partly debunked the story in a letter published in Alter Ego #43 (December 2004), pp. 43–44

Irwin said he never played golf with Goodman, so the story is untrue. I heard this story more than a couple of times while sitting in the lunchroom at DC’s 909 Third Avenue and 75 Rockefeller Plaza office as Sol Harrison and [production chief] Jack Adler were schmoozing with some of us … who worked for DC during our college summers…. [T]he way I heard the story from Sol was that Goodman was playing with one of the heads of Independent News, not DC Comics (though DC owned Independent News). … As the distributor of DC Comics, this man certainly knew all the sales figures and was in the best position to tell this tidbit to Goodman. … Of course, Goodman would want to be playing golf with this fellow and be in his good graces. … Sol worked closely with Independent News’ top management over the decades and would have gotten this story straight from the horse’s mouth.

Goodman, a publishing trend-follower aware of the JLA’s strong sales, confirmably directed his comics editor, Stan Lee, to create a comic-book series about a team of superheroes. According to Lee in Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster/Fireside Books, 1974), p. 16: “Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The [sic] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes. … ‘ If the Justice League is selling ‘, spoke he, ‘why don’t we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?'”

Jump up^Writer-artist Bill Everett‘s Sub-Mariner had actually been created for an undistributed movie-theater giveaway comic, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly earlier that year, with the previously unseen, eight-page original story expanded by four pages for Marvel Comics #1.

^ Jump up to:abPer researcher Keif Fromm, Alter Ego #49, p. 4 (caption), Marvel Comics #1, cover-dated October 1939, quickly sold out 80,000 copies, prompting Goodman to produce a second printing, cover-dated November 1939. The latter appears identical except for a black bar over the October date in the inside front-cover indicia, and the November date added at the end. That sold approximately 800,000 copies—a large figure in the market of that time. Also per Fromm, the first issue of Captain America Comics sold nearly one million copies.

^ Jump up to:abDaniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics. New York City: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 27, 32–33. ISBN0-8109-3821-9. Timely Publications became the name under which Goodman first published a comic book line. He eventually created a number of companies to publish comics … but Timely was the name by which Goodman’s Golden Age comics were known. . . . Marvel wasn’t always Marvel; in the early 1940s the company was known as Timely Comics….

Jump up^Per Les Daniels in Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, pp. 67–68: “The success of EC had a definite influence on Marvel. As Stan Lee recalls, ‘Martin Goodman would say, “Stan, let’s do a different kind of book,” and it was usually based on how the competition was doing. When we found that EC’s horror books were doing well, for instance, we published a lot of horror books'”.

Jump up^Roberts, Randy; Olson, James S. (1998). American Experiences: Readings in American History: Since 1865 (4 ed.). Addison–Wesley. p. 317. ISBN978-0-321-01031-5. Marvel Comics employed a realism in both characterization and setting in its superhero titles that was unequaled in the comic book industry.

Jump up^Comics historian Greg Theakston has suggested that the decision to include monsters and initially to distance the new breed of superheroes from costumes was a conscious one, and born of necessity. Since DC distributed Marvel’s output at the time, Theakston theorizes that, “Goodman and Lee decided to keep their superhero line looking as much like their horror line as they possibly could,” downplaying “the fact that [Marvel] was now creating heroes” with the effect that they ventured “into deeper waters, where DC had never considered going”. See Ro, pp. 87–88